1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sorting machine, particularly to a sorting machine which receives recorded sheets delivered from a host sheet supplying unit, such as a copier or a printer, turns the sheets upside down, and discharges them selectively to one of a plurality of trays arranged in a vertical array, thereby permitting their distribution and reception.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A conventional sorting machine of this type is known which is so composed that a plurality of trays are vertically fixedly stacked with intervals therebetween, and recorded sheets conveyed from a feed opening by a transport mechanism are discharged to a tray selected by a tray selecting means. Alternatively, various other types of apparatus are known, including ones so designed that by an integral vertical movement of vertically spaced trays a selected tray entry is aligned with a sheet discharge portion so as to discharge sheets onto the selected tray.
In the conventional sorting machines, however, sheets delivered from a copier or the like are usually discharged to the trays in a face-up condition, i.e., with their recorded surfaces or their faces turned up. If there is a plurality of pages of manuscript, the pages will be stacked in a reverse sequence, and it takes an operator a lot of time to restack them in the right sequence. Therefore, post processing sorting machines also have been developed which have a function of turning sheets over into a face-down condition before they are discharged to trays. However, these mechanisms have tended to be too complicated.